Except for a short section of added paving, the renewal of Savannah Avenue is nearly complete. Low-growing shrubs have been selected for the islands in the middle of the street. The general contractor said his company will be painting stripes and a subcontractor will be installing faux brick-paver crosswalks next week.

“We’re probably going to be done in about two weeks,” said Jeffrey Wolfe, owner of Southeastern Civil Inc.

His company won the multifaceted public works contract on a bid of up to $1.85 million last year. The work, from sewer and water lines to traffic signals, has wound up on schedule. The city gave its notice to proceed Sept. 23, with a 270-day timeframe, and completion in June predicted.

The bid gave unit prices for different portions of the work. Originally, the brick-look crosswalks were held out as an alternate item. Without them, lines would have been painted to indicate crosswalks. But other portions of the work cost less than predicted, so the city was able to add the deluxe crosswalks, to be installed by a subcontractor called Paveway Systems.

 

Added repaving

“We’ll stay below the overall, final contract price on this, even with doing the crosswalks, and we’re also doing a little bit of extra paving,” said City Engineer Brad Deal.

Originally, the project followed Savannah Avenue from its origin downtown to where it intersects with Gentilly Road. The additional resurfacing will cover the remainder of the avenue, from Gentilly to near the edge of Northside Drive. This is being added because the Georgia Department of Transportation has plans to resurface Northside Drive, which is a section of U.S. Highway 80, possibly by the end of the year, Deal said.

“We thought it was going to not really look that good if we left out that one piece of the road,” he said.

The crosswalks do not contain brick pavers, but a continuous material stamped and colored to look like red brick. Paveway Systems will probably lay the crosswalks at night, so as not to disrupt daytime traffic, said Wolfe and Deal.

In all there will be a total of seven crosswalks, including walks in all four directions at the Zetterower intersection, plus crossings through just three of the islands along the course of Savannah Avenue. The other five islands are not divided and will not have crosswalks.

“I think all of the things that were originally in the contract should be done in the next two weeks,” Deal said. “But we did add the extra paving, and I’m not sure if that’s going to be done in the next two weeks, but it should be done at the end of the month.”

The central islands are intended to slow car traffic and shield pedestrians.  Besides the roadwork, the project involved installation of new water pipelines under the sidewalk and lining a sewer main beneath the street to prevent leaks.

New sections of sidewalk have also been poured. Also part of the project, a new traffic signal system on mast arms on decorative black poles has been installed at the intersection with Zetterower Avenue. The new signals should be activated soon, Deal said. Meanwhile, the old ones are still doing their job.

The whole project extends nine-tenths of a mile, with the Gentilly-to-Northside paving adding about 500 feet.

 

Low-growing shrubs

One of the last things slated to be done is the city’s landscaping of the traffic islands. The contractor needs to install irrigation lines first, and that could be done next week, Deal said.

Earlier this week, Streets and Parks Superintendent Robert Seamans told City Council about the plants to be placed in the islands. Drift roses, miniature gardenias, a low-growing variety of holly and a groundcover form of loropetalum were the examples he named.  “We’re looking at low-growing shrubs, basically nothing higher than two feet …,” Seamans said. “We’re going to try to do low-maintenance, low-profile. … Especially with those mid-block crossings, we don’t want to put anything there that will hinder a driver from seeing.”  

Other projects

City Council awarded a contract Tuesday to Sikes Brothers Inc. for repaving sections of eight streets this summer. Sikes gave the lower of two bids, with unit pricing, for $483,853 worth of described projects. But at the city engineering staff’s request, the council allowed for spending up to the budgeted $509,952 with Sikes at the unit prices so that some added areas can be repaved.

Included sections are Oak Street from Northside Drive to Preetorious Street; Preetorious Street from North Main Street to Oak Street; Chandler Road from Georgia Avenue to Lanier Drive; Lafayette Street from Turner Street to Northside Drive; Thomas Street, also from Turner Street to Northside Drive; Davis Street from Northside Drive to East  Parrish Street; East Olliff Street from North Zetterower Avenue to Northside Drive; and Merrywood Drive from Hawthorne Road to Oak Leaf Drive. These total 1.72 miles.

The proposed resurfacing of West Parrish Street was not included in this contract, but should be advertised for separate bids later this month, Deal said.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.